Full timers versus weekenders.

I know the subject sounds like an introduction to a battle, but it is not. We are full timers and have met both and they all fit into the great folks category. What I wanted to start a discussion on was the differing camp site requirements for the two groups. Actually, there are not two distinct groups, but these two terms denote the extremes. Of course, some full timers move so often that they appear to be just weekenders and some weekenders stay for a month or more in one place.

We happen to like to stay a couple of weeks in one place and may spend a couple of months in a particular area. We like quiet, secure places that are reasonably priced. Thus we spend a lot of time in COE parks. We have advanced life experience, so we arrange our medical visits for the winter months in south east Texas. From there, we plan our spring, summer and fall for cooler northern states. We look for parks that appear to be interested in return visitors, that are clean and with camp sites along a lake or river. We have only had one negative experience in these kind of parks and we would still go back to that park if we were in the area. So, I guess it was not too bad.

Quiet, secure, clean, reasonably priced, etc., are not very specific terms. If you want to add to this, we sure would like to see your thoughts.

George & Paula

 

We much prefer, COE, NFS, NPS, and most state parks, using private parks mostly for overnight stops where they happen to fit our time/mileage parameters on the way to our next destination. At least in the areas where we mostly travel on the east coast, the state and national parks typically have a 14 day maximum stay limit, with some popular parks as short as 10 days during peak times. Salt Springs Recreation Area Campground in Florida's Ocala National Forest is a notable exception though, since the concessionaire there allows up to 180 days on some sites. We only stayed for 2 weeks though. Our only other semi-long term stay during the winter is the Escapees RV Club owned park near Bushnell, FL. As members, our month's stay there worked out to about $14/night, making it as good a deal as the national parks with our Senior Pass. One park we just added to our "max" time list at 14 days for the next time is Crooked River State Park in St Mary's, GA. They're in the process of upgrading the majority of the sites to full 50 amp, water, and sewer hook ups, and we were fortunate enough to get one of the newly completed sites when we were there a couple of weeks ago. We don't really mind the no sewer and sometimes no water sites we usually see at the other public parks, but full hookups are a really nice feature! Besides the Escapees and other private park, the only other public park we stayed at this winter with full hookups was Salt Springs. Now we're mostly one-nighting it on our slow drift north to see our kids, etc., and have made it all the way Charlotte, NC so far. We stalled here though, for 3 nights due to a snow/ice storm in the higher elevations between here and our next stop in Virginia. Back on the road tomorrow, since we do have commitments that call for us to be back at our Adirondack cottage site by April 1st.

 

We've been RVing now going on 6 years and our travels are pretty much on the west coast and over into Nevada and Arizona. Soon that will expand up into New Mexico and So. Dakota. When we travel we usually stay out at least three weeks at a time but we also make shorter trips when we feel like just getting away for few days change of pace. We enjoy parks and campgrounds that are number one, clean, and number two, that offer the amenities they say they have on their website, etc. We don't need "fancy", at the same time we don't need or want run down, dilapidated and dirty ones either. Full timers are no problem as long as they aren't hanging their laundry out down the side next to our coach. And yes we have run into that before. We usually have an area in mind to visit and do a pretty full check of what's available in and around that area. Most of the time we find what we are looking for. We don't tow so we rent a car once we reach our destination and so far that has worked for us very well. Being retired we also follow the seasons when we travel. Love it when the folks back home are hunkered down riding out a storm while we are sitting in the desert over in Arizona sipping margaritas......... And yes we rub that in good when we talk with them too. We get along with most folks we come in contact with and have met some really neat people.. We avoid the "party parks" as we simply aren't into that type of socializing. If others like it then that's their thing of course. I guess you could call us just a couple of average retired RVers who like the open road, staying in nice parks and campgrounds, and meeting similar people along the way. And to think prior to buying the motorhome we were a couple of badass Harley folks who terrorized the highways and byways, leather vests and all........ Not really, it was more like we cruised and tried to keep the noise down going thru towns as best we could. We will use the RV until I can no longer get my driver's license renewed and then who knows. Perhaps we'll take up drag racing and try to bring back some of our wild and crazier days again........

Good thread geode. Will be interesting to read what others say in the posts ahead..........

BankShot.................(aka Terry)

 

Like BankShot we too picked up on RVing 6years ago after we gave up seasonal camping for numerous years. We head out for a month at a time and we prefer to visit private parks close to or on a beach. We like to have the comforts of home with wifi and cable or over the air tv. We usually don’t stay at a place for more than a couple of days at a time. Party parks are not our thing,we did that in our younger days. Now we just like to sit back,listen to some good country music and have a few(or more) adult beverages.When at home then we will camp in one of our provincial parks. This year we are heading out a little early than normal,leaving May 19 heading toward Grand Canyon,Venice Beach up to San Francisco then over to Reno before heading home. Our goal is to see all lower 48 states before we retire in 10 years,so far we’ve been to 23.

 

We have been camping / RVing for over 40 years now. We started with a tent, Moved up to a Soft Top Tent trailer, then a Hard Top. Next was a Travel Trailer. After that two C Class motor homes and now we have a small A Class.

We became full timers last December. Our goal, at present, is to see as much of North America as we can. We have prepared a “Bucket List” thus we are motivated to follow a plan. Said plan is not chiselled in stone though.

We want to see the country NOT from the inside of our coach. We like to “stay a while” in places we have chosen to visit if we can. We have lived in cities for most of our lives and find they are usually very much alike no mater the location. Rural locations and small towns have a flavor that attracts us. We have also “Boon Docked” some mostly because we like our space and it certainly helps keep the pocket book looking a little healthier.

When we can’t be accommodated dry camping, we opt for C O E, National, Provincial or State Park before a commercial park. Only if none of the above are available will we stay at a commercial and then we would rather it be in a small town or out in the country before staying in a city. I would rather drive an extra hour or more to visit an attraction rather than staying close to one in a city.

We have discovered an oddity. We find that most folks that boon dock or choose non commercial parks seem to be a lot “friendlier and laid back” than that those that tend to populate the more dense commercial parks. We feel Temporary / Weekender / Vacationer RVers seem to be......maybe the wrong words.....but more self centered and closed up and in a rush. You allude to there being two groups of RVers. We think there are more like three. There are us, the full timers, the weekenders / vacationers and then there are the permanents. We find the permanents tend to be a bit like the weekenders but keep to themselves even more.

Being Canadian, we are restricted by how long we can stay out of our country. We have become Snow Birds and find the lifestyle to be very pleasant. In the warmer months we visit our countries treasures. The winters become an additional four or five months of summer for us so we visit yours.

Our two cents....

Darrell & Jerry

 

We've been tent camping for many years and recently upgraded to an 18' HTT. If you're looking for perspective of a weekender, here it is...

• Location is the most important thing to us (relative to home, that is). With only 2- or 3-day weekend trips (and the occasional 4-nigher), we simply don't want to burn a day driving. So we tend to stay with a 200-mile radius. Luckily, we have lots of good choices in NC!
• Our amenity "must haves" include hiking, biking, and canoeing.... as well as trees for the hammocks and a firepit for the s'mores. We go camping for the "nature experience." Things like a pool, wi-fi, clubhouse, camp stores, and attractions within driving distance are not important at all to us. When we look at the site reviews, things like TV/satellite coverage don't matter to us.
• We tend to stick with municipal/state/national parks/etc. and avoid the "RV Resorts." While they (the resorts) are usually beautiful, they're usually *very* expensive and packed tight. We also favor parks with "buddy sites" as we frequently camp with friends and family. At about ~20/night, we consider it a bargain.
• The condition of the bathhouses used to be more important to us, but now we have our own bathroom! Most of the parks we visit are adequate, but showing their age. With only the two of us, full-hookups isn't as important to us either. Now that we know what we're doing (sorta), we can easily go a weekend without running out of holding tank room
• Safety has never been a concern to us (we've always feared the raccoons getting into the screen-house more than someone breaking into our camper).

Just our $0.02 (USD). YMMV

We're still about 10 years away from full-timing. I'm sure our perspective will change at that time.

-R

 

The problem with trying to group RVers into categories and then trying to define those categories is that there are very few clear boundaries between groups. For example, the writer noted above states that WiFi is not of interest for him, as a weekender, but I as an RVPR admin can say with certainty that there are plenty of weekenders for whom WiFi is a very big deal! In fact, it's one of the most commonly cited complaints about parks. Consider the average RV family with a couple of kids all of whom have multiple web-connected devices and who don't have enough cellular data in their plan to permit an entire weekend's use. So who's definition of a weekender is correct? Or are both of them equally valid? The devil is in the detail.

 

What docj states above is so true. The requirements for a full-time RVer are usually pretty different than those of a part timer or a casual RVer. Ask 10 RVers what is the most important thing to them when staying at a park or campground and you will get at least 7 to 8 different answers. Over the years we have found that our priority list has changed a bit and I think this happens to almost everyone to a large degree. One thing that comes to mind is that early on having a TV and a satellite dish wasn't important at all. We rarely if ever used it. But lately we find we now watch the morning and evening news and a few certain programs on a rainy or cold night, so having a space that isn't covered over in trees is almost a must for us. Sure we can hook up to cable if necessary but we'd rather use our satellite dish as it affords us any and all of the channels we want to watch. For those that rely on "usable" restrooms or enjoy a swim or a soak in the hot tub, those become priorities for them whereas for us they aren't. And so on and so forth. We have no problem sorting thru the amenities a park offers to decide whether or not to stay there. As I've noted in other threads, the thing that really bothers us is when a park states they have a given amenity that we look for and we show up only to find that amenity is non existent. Or in one instance where we thought we were going to be staying in a beautiful, pristine but naturally built and landscaped park only to find it to be a dirt/dust bowl with one of the worst hookups we have ever run across in all our travels. There are always areas on a website that can be improved or expanded upon and it is evident that those who do the work in this area are trying hard to please us all. They are part of just a few doing all that work. To us RVPR is without a doubt the best review site out there. And the forum that allows us all to be part of is also the best, bar none. Oh, and I would agree 100% with what docj said about WiFi being the biggest issue with most RVers. Ten years ago nobody cared about it but now it's a huge amenity that many parks get ripped apart and taken to task about.............

BankShot...............(aka Terry)

 

It is pretty much impossible to paste a label on everyone. There are groups, sub-groups and a lot of overlap. This is a good thing. If everyone's needs were the same life would be pretty boring...plus it would make the park owners/operators lives too easy. We can't have that!! As well, there are very few "perfect" parks simply because of our diverse needs.

Most of us are able to use the "Basics" of what a park offers and bring with us amenities that we feel we can not do without. Ten years ago Wifi was our number one peeve. We now carry our own. Good, reliable Wifi is not always available. When it is, I use it. TV is a bit of an issue for us right now as we spend roughly six months in Canada and six months in the US. Shaw will not reach the deep south (so I am told) and I can't get local programming in Canada with Dish or Direct. We are not big enough fans of TV right now to have two services. As long as we can get some OTA, right now we are satisfied.

The important thing for us is, as BankShot mentioned, RELIABLE information. Like we said, If a park can guarantee it will meet our basic needs, we can usually make our stay pleasurable building on their basics. The next item on our list is....Did we receive fair value for our dollar? So far RVPR is the best tool out there.

Thank you RVPR.

Darrell and Jerry

 

We meet new people every once in awhile that think we're foolish to have cell based Internet service and satellite TV in our motorhome. They've sometimes come right out and told us we're missing the whole point of "camping". When we explain to them that our RV is our full time home not our "camper", and we have similar amenities in our motorhome to the ones they likely have in their full time home, some of them get it right away, while others shake their heads and insist we must have a "real home" where we get our mail, etc., someplace. If we try to explain our mail forwarding service, their eyes usually start glazing over along with more head shaking. That's when we try to change the subject...

 

The way I see it there's a huge difference between a family or even couples that go "camping" for the weekend using a tow behind trailer or small fifth wheel, etc., and a retired full time couple using a Class A motorhome or other large RV as their "home on wheels". To me going camping for the weekend with the kids is supposed to be an outdoor family experience where the family plays together and introduces the kids to nature and a whole bunch of outdoor activities, etc. Again in my way of thinking this is not the place for a TV or video gaming, etc. but we all know both of those are part of today's family society so in most cases both are present and used constantly. To each their own and I am not saying that weekend RVers should not have a TV and video gaming devices along for the kid or for themselves. If that's how they like to go RVing then that's their choice and their right. I just think it defeats the purpose of it all IMveryHO............

BankShot.............(aka Terry)

 

Hi. We are new. Very new.
We just bought our very first camper in February 2018. We took a weekend shake-down trip a few weeks after purchasing, then a March trip and a June trip. So I don't have much experience.

We are more like weekend campers than full-timers, but we prefer not to camp on weekends if we can help it.
My husband and I are both educators. We have two small children. We don't like to party.
We purchased our travel trailer to take vacations during school breaks. Our last trip was ten days. We visited a theme park and three state parks. We had a blast.

The kids rode roller coasters and had fun at the theme parks; we all swam and kayaked and had picnics at the state parks. It was a lot of fun.
We have one more trip planned this month (a Sun-Sat trip in the middle of the month), then we will clean out and store the camper away until the end of November, when we get Thanksgiving break.

We can't really do weekends during the school year. Older child is in lots of activities, and my husband is busy during football season.

I've booked all but one trip through July of 2019. When reading reviews, I look for family-friendly, safe, affordable, and something that works for our needs for that trip.
For example, a parking lot type park is fine for an overnight. It might even be okay if we are sight-seeing and are gone from morning until evening. But we like a little room to move around and some nature if we will be at the park very much, or if we will be hiking, swimming, etc.

We haven't really wanted or needed wifi, but the day may come when we do. My husband would rather take a shower in campground facilities since ours is so small, so we like for them to be clean.

ETA: We do look for full hook-ups. We like having electric, water, and sewer available at our campsite. We are considering a state park for next summer that doesn't have them; the idea intimidates us. But the park is really neat, and we don't want to miss out on the fun.

 

Welcome to the forum, Amanda! You'll find lot's of folks here that are more than willing to help newcomers to RV'ing with any questions you may have.

 

Just got around to this thread again. I have a picture in my mind of Harley dude and dudet terrorizing the highway. Ha Ha Ha! Thanks for the image.

 

Welcome to the group Amanda L. I think you have arrived at the right place for answers to questions you may have. I'm sure you will find that it is a pretty easy going group so don't worry about asking for advice.

You are apprehensive about visiting a State Park with limited facilities and that's understandable since you have not yet "been without". I believe that you will easily adapt to this type of park. I don't know the capacities of your holding tanks and you don't state the length of your stay at this park but usually the first problem that crops up is running out of electricity. There are many solutions to the limitations that going without shore services presents.

I would suggest that your family head out for short trips near your home so you can get comfortable using only the resources that your trailer comes with.

We enjoy State Parks style campgrounds more that commercial because there is usually more privacy and have less of a population density.

Enjoy your new toy and don't forget to let others know how well the parks you visit lived up to your expectations.

Darrell and Jerry

 

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Welcome to the forum Amanda L. I'll second what NYDutch said above and simply add that you have joined the best RV site on the web IMHO. Safe travels to you and your family. You kids will be making memories that will last them thru their lifetimes for sure. Great to hear that there are still folks out there that involve their children in this kind of activity. RVing is a really great experience for "kids of all ages" and that includes us seniors that consider themselves to still be kids........... Let the fun for you begin...................

Regards, BankShot.............(aka Terry)

 

We do not full time and don’t plan to for the foreseeable future, but we are going on longer trips. As retired but still working authors, we really can now do this for periods. Writing can be done without the internet, but publishing does take connection. So far, we’ve gotten books out on the road, with minimal effort. Worst case, we have the Jeep, and can usually drive to a town and find a Starbucks or something, or use our AT&T hotspot.

Still, we get itchy to get back home for projects there, as well as other things like musicals for my husband, and dance classes at the local parks and rec, and my book club.

I think once we decide if we will be leaving California or not, or just moving from our pricey address, we will evaluate our trip schedule, and being on the road for even longer periods of time. For example, we have friends and family on the East Coast and I think that’s at least a 3-4 month sojourn.

This works for us, but we can afford it, too, so in that regard, I believe we have the best of all possible worlds. For now, at least.

 

OK... I created the following post in October, 2017, in response to a similar thread on a different forum in re: What IS or is NOT "camping"? With the responses to this thread I just couldn't get it out of my mind and offer it to you freely; no judgements; no recriminations; no applause. It is what it is:

"That said, 'camping' is what YOU make it!! Many consider 'camping' as being out in nature, enjoying the flora/fauna of the area(s) in which we find ourselves; unencumbered by the trappings of 21st Century living, i.e., cell phones, interwebs, TV, etc.

Then there are those who start to hyperventilate/gasp for air when those things are NOT available... I.e., Most teenagers/twenty-somethings, co-dependent grandparents who can't NOT know what their grandchildren are doing at every waking moment.

No value judgements here, though.

MOST of us, however, fall somewhere in between

Those who fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum are: Ready to embrace the smell of woodsmoke from a campfire... And the subsequent aroma of a burning, melted marshmallow, pre-s'mores [make sure you have enough Hershey bars/graham crackers to go 'round!], and are comforted in the knowledge[?] that your fire is scaring away TONS of mosquitoes! While another TON of mosquitoes eat you alive! ...And you don't really even CARE!

It's the second group that are 'true campers.' They are the ones who say, 'Oh? Is there a lot of blood? Is is yours? Can you pass it off as a mosquito bite?' [The Erma Bombeck School of Child Rearing.] It is sitting down next to a flowing stream — AND your moody teenager [gender notwithstanding!] — only to discover his/her dreams/fears/hopes for their futures... And decide how YOU are going to make that happen! Then assuring them that, no matter what, you're going to love them down to your very guts! You MIGHT even sit next to your spouse of 40+ or 50+ years — same flowing stream, of course! — and hear them really, really wish they could have made your life a bit easier with the children/family stuff... And your reassuring them that 'easy' or 'not-so-easy,' you wouldn't have changed a damn thing! That you're a TEAM!

No matter where we go... No matter where we end up at the end of the driving day... 'Out There,' we get to LISTEN to the ones who are supposed to matter the most in our lives...

...And we get to HEAR what they have to say!

Don't get much better'nat, Shugah!

Namaste."